1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a device for generating and decoupling different movements in cleaning and sealing stations in ink printers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Along with a multitude of other terminal units for texts, for example needle, matrix, thermal-transfer and electro-photographic printers, ink printers have assumed increasing importance for the user as a result of the development of increasingly powerful microprocessors. Due to the growing efficiency of text-processing peripheral equipment, the procurement of a printer is often a strategic decision in which performance features such as speed, economy and letter quality take the foreground. Moreover, the performance feature of color printing is growing in importance for various applications. Along with thermal-transfer printing, ink printing offers the optimal prerequisites for this through simple and inexpensive production of colored inks. The ink colors used in an ink printer, for example according to DE-A1-37 36 916, are yellow, cyan, magenta and black. The advantage of ink printers, which consists in the inexpensive and simple production of ink, is offset by the disadvantage that the ink dries in the jet outlet openings of an ink printing head over long printing pauses of the ink printer. To prevent this drying, the ink printer comprises e.g. a cleaning and sealing station or suction regenerating device. Beyond this, the cleaning and sealing station has the object of eliminating soiling of the jet outlet openings of the ink printing head in the ink printer. For this purpose, as indicated by the name cleaning and sealing station, the ink printing heads are cleaned at regular intervals and sealed during longer printing pauses of the ink printer. The demands made on the cleaning and sealing station require steps which prevent the mixing of colors during the cleaning and sealing of the ink printing heads and the destruction of meniscuses in jet outlet openings of the ink printing heads when a suction and covering device is coupled with an ink printing mechanism. The suction and covering device is arranged, for example in a two-part swivel lever which is constructed so as to be laterally displaceable. To enable the coupling of the suction and covering device with the ink printing mechanism and the suction of ink out of the ink printing heads in the coupled state by means of a pump, the required movements of the swivel lever and pump must be generated and it must be possible to decouple these movements from one another.
A cleaning and sealing station or suction regenerating device for ink printing heads which is known from DE-A1-33 16 474, DE-A1-33 16 968, DE-A1-36 04 373, DE-A1-36 11 333, DE-A1-36 33 239, DE-A1-37 26 671, DE-A1-38 10 698 and EP-A1-0 094 220, cleans and rinses jet outlet openings of the ink printing heads in various ways and seals them over longer pauses in printing of the ink printers. The cleaning and sealing station or suction regenerating device is preferably arranged in the ink printer in a parked position outside the operating range of a printer carriage carrying the ink printing heads. As a result of the additional installation space required for this in the ink printer, depending on the external dimensions of the cleaning and sealing station or suction regenerating device, the ink printer is wider and accordingly less convenient.
The manner in which a suction and covering device is arranged in the cleaning and sealing station so as to be movable forward and backward is known, moreover, from DE-A1-36 11 333. The suction and covering device need only be movable forward and backward because the printer carriage with the ink printing heads can be accurately positioned relative to the cleaning and sealing station by means of the special park position of the cleaning and sealing station. For this purpose, a motor is provided in the cleaning and sealing station which drives a pump lever and the suction and covering device, which is supported so as to slide, via a costly gear unit and accordingly initiates the coupling and suction process.